Tag Archives: Closed Captions

Creating Opportunities for Deaf Employment Innovation Diversity Empowerment Access (CODE-IDEA) offers videos in ASL and captions for employers who want to hire deaf and hard of hearing people and for job seekers. They are also offering an I-Pad for their Deaf@work contest. Photographs need to be submitted by February 7, 2013 to qualify for this contest. […]

Raychellet Williamson told the children at Shannon Elementary School to watch family-friendly TV programs and shows with closed captions during winter break. In November, she heard a Kent State professor talk about how close captioning improved literacy in Finland. As a result, she decided all the children at her school should watch family-friendly shows with closed captions. […]

Many movies in theatres are not accessible to deaf and hard of hearing people. This month, advocates for deaf and hard of hearing people are urging movie theatres to provide captions for movies. An online press room has been set up to provide information about this captioning campaign. The campaign is sponsored by the Collaborative […]

Last month, a closed captions software company, CPC, received the National Association of the Deaf’s (NAD) prestigious Accessibility Award. The award was presented during its biennial conference in Louisville, Kentucky on July 4th. NAD President, Bobbie Beth Scoggins said the awards recognizes individuals and organizations across the country that have improved lives for deaf and hard-of-hearing […]

Have you ever tried putting a closed captioned YouTube video onto your website? To make sure the captions will automatically be on those videos, here is how to get it to work properly. After the movie URL, use quotation marks before and after inserting the following information: &cc_load_policy=1. inside quotation marks. The default setting for […]

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Plaintiffs Charge that Netflix Violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by Not Providing Equal Access to its “Watch Instantly” Streaming Content. An estimated 36 million Americans are deaf or hard of hearing. The deaf and hard of hearing community has repeatedly expressed concerns—via letters, petitions, blogs, and social media—to Netflix […]

On the heels of the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley will today announce settlements her office has reached with the largest national movie theater chains to provide deaf and blind patrons with access at all of their locations in Massachusetts.

As we predicted and hoped, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires movie theaters to show closed-captioned movies unless doing so would constitute an “undue burden.” The ruling came in a case that the Arizona Attorney General’s Office filed against the Harkins theater chain. The federal district […]

During closing, my hands are at my heart in prayer. The yoga teacher says to move my fingers so that only my thumbs and pinky are touching – the center is to remain open, like a flower. She says the lotus grows in the mud and opens up when the sun shines on it, and closes when it doesn’t. She says, “Remember that when life is murkey, and I’m struggling through the mud, to open up, like the lotus.”

We are in Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II) and the teacher is walking us through the pose nice and slow. She has us begin in Tadasana (Mountain pose) and then tells us to touch our fingertips together in front of our chest. As we jump our legs apart, our arms open up too (so they are parallel to the ground).

Next, the real instruction begins. She focuses on our feet, making sure they are spaced far enough apart and turned in the proper direction. She reminds us that our back heel should be aligned with our front heel.

She pauses as we breathe.

Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.

She moves onto our legs. She makes sure that our right knee is bent so that it’s directly over the right ankle. We need to press our thigh back so we can see our second toe. She keeps us focused on our lower body, giving us directions on our tailbone, butt, and – again – our thighs. She mentions that second toe again.

Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.

You can practically hear the thoughts of every student in the studio: My arms are tired. My arms are so tired! When will this pose be over so we can put our arms down? Are anyone else’s arms tired? Or am I just a wimp? How much longer do we have to hold our arms up?

Finally, the teacher says, “I know your arms are tired.”

Her acknowledgement is a relief even though she encourages us to keep those arms lifted. “Stretch them out even further, reeeaaaaching for the walls,” she says.

She moves onto our shoulder blades – are they scrunched up by our neck? Release them.

Lengthen our torsos.

Broaden our chests.

She knows exactly what we’re doing – allowing our minds to be consumed with thoughts about our arms.